Spyker Poised to Rev Out of Bankruptcy Protection, but Survival Not Yet Assured

Dutch maker of high-class roadsters and racing vehicles Spyker gets creditors to agree to a close haircut.

NEW YORK (The Deal) -- It's not quite the rubber-burning return to the road that its founder Victor Muller had been hoping for. But Dutch sports-car maker Spyker (SPYKF) does at least have a chance of emerging from payment moratorium, the local equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after a majority of its creditors voted to accept a very close haircut.

Spyker, which applied for voluntary financial restructuring last year, is proposing to pay each creditor the first €12,000 ($13,681) of what it owes plus just 10% of the remainder.

For the biggest creditors -- the largest of which is reportedly a U.K. unit of the now-defunct Saab Automobile, and is owed €24.9 million -- the payment is not going to fill any holes in their balance sheets. Nevertheless, Dutch media reported on Thursday, May 14, that most had accepted the offer, on the advice of the court-appointed administrator, Henk Pasman, of law firm Wijn & Stael Advokaten.

The alternative would be for the company to be pushed into bankruptcy, leaving creditors without a penny. The District Court of Lelystad is scheduled to decide on Friday, May 22, on whether to allow the debt settlement plan to go ahead, allowing the company to emerge from payment moratorium.

The alternative would likely be the bankruptcy from which Spyker only narrowly escaped earlier this year, when an earlier court ruling declaring the business bankrupt was overturned on appeal, following the company's announcement that it had received some long-awaited bridging finance.